Do you usually just buy the store bought jam/jelly or do you make your own? Do you find it difficult at all?
I find it a lot easier to just buy it off of the shelf, but I got my first taste of homemade jelly (can’t be beat!) and I am considering maybe making it sometime down the road.
I think two things discourage many people from making their own jams and jellies.
Many recipes are old and maybe came from a time when people had small orchards on a family farm and a lot of fruit to deal with at once. “Take 10 lbs of cherries…” The average person in an apartment doesn’t need 2 dozen jars of jam.
Cost. Fresh fruit can be expensive if you start buying in quantities to fill the average recipe requirements. Also, pectin can be expensive if you are going to need a lot.
Maybe people don’t see a great difference between home canned and a good brand of jam. In California, when I was a child, Mom would buy Knott’s Berry Farm brand jams and jellies when she wanted one of the best commercial brands available in the supermarket.
I would like to see some recipes where you could take a can of peaches or pears, etc and turn that into a jar of two of jelly, or recipes using fresh fruit that only make a couple of jars. I don’t need 2 dozen jars of the same jelly.
I’ve made hot pepper jelly with bell peppers and jalapenos.